I´ll give you the sun

Title of Activity
Book code

Description of educational activity
Duration: 90 minutes
Pupils’ age: 15-19
Organization of the class of pupils: group work/ it must be carried out in a library

The aim of the lesson:

The main target of these lessons is to increase the interest of students in libraries. To teach them how to search in libraries and how to utilize libraries during the studies.The aim of the lesson is to improve the reading literacy of the students. To improve their reading comprehension and to be able to find connections between different books. Another goal is to make the pupils develop their skill of searching for clues. To teach students reading for the gist, skimming and scanning the text. Using decoding and vocabulary strategies. Students will gain knowledge and understanding of connecting ideas and themes across texts.

Support materials:

Worksheet 1 with hints.
Worksheet 2 with tasks. (I´ll give you the sun)
Excerpts from the book I´ll give you the sun by Jandy Nelson (Page 173, I stop. “Noah …. I thought I sucked!)

The books involved:

The fault in our stars – John Green ( page 55)
Anne Frank - THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL – Anne Frank (page 8)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher´s stone – J.K.Rowling ( page 50)
Inkheart – Cornelia Funke (page 58, chapter 12)
The Lord of the rings - J. R. R. TOLKIEN (page 85, chapter 8)
City of bones - Cassandra Clare (page 268)
Clockwork orange – Anthony Burgess (page 9)
Stardust – Neil Gaiman (page 10)
Twilight - Stephenie Meyer (page 220)

Activities:

The students are divided into groups of 4-5.
Each group gets a set of worksheets.
The groups compete with each other. The main goal is to solve the Book code in the shortest time.
They have different hints in the worksheets, which they have to find and solve.
They have to proceed step by step to get from one book to another. There are 10 books involved. In these books they have to find the hint for the next book.
After finding the last book, the students get a worksheet with other activities where they have to discuss and solve the tasks in pairs. Their first task is to complete an internal monologue of the „concerned person“. Their 2. Task is to complete the task of the narrator, what Noe is thinks at that moment. 3. task is to replace the expression „ he has gone mad“ with an idiom and the last task is to write a short dialogue about: what could the protagonist mess up. (at least 3 replicas)
Discussion: The students are enabled to interact, to discuss within the group, to argue for or against an opinion.

Evaluation and assessment method:

Throughout the lesson we can see whether the students are successful with their reading comprehension as all the activity is focused on the ability to scan the text, skim the text or to read for the gist. If the students are not able to utilize these abilities they are not able to get further in this activity. If we can see that the students struggle the teacher should provide some help.

The effect of the activity on RSP reading:

The RSP readers learn how to scan the text and how to recognize names and words in context. They learn searching for particular information, or checking to see whether a passage is relevant. They recognize relevant facts and ideas; classify information. The students learn how to orientate in libraries, how to search information and how to benefit from libraries.

Connection to curriculum

Grade: 1^st and 2^nd grade of bilingual studies

Bilingual curriculum: The study of literature is focused during the second year on reading comprehension of literary texts which are based on the interests of the students which involves fantasy, high fantasy, dirk fantasy, urban fantasy, literature with boy or girl protagonists. The aim of the curriculum is to teach students to work with the text, to analyse the texts. The aim is to practise the following reading methods: Skim reading/ browsing, Speed Reading, reading for the gist, Scanning.

Knowledge:

Develop reading methods, speed reading, reading for the gist, scanning and skimming.
Understand how the interaction of reader, text, and lesson impacts comprehension and student engagement.
Improve reading comprehension.
Organise information in a specific way.

Skills:

Evaluate reading progress and apply goal setting strategies and monitor progress toward meeting reading goals
Utilizing libraries for searching information.
Learning how to search in libraries.
Compare and contrast
Summarize
Work effectively in groups, respecting others

Competences:

Synthesize information from a variety of sources
Continue to use resources to increase vocabulary and gain deeper understanding by using context clues
Follow specific instructions and conventions
Evaluate evidence

Bibliographic reference to be used during the activity

Jandy Nelson

I'll Give You the Sun

A Game of Thrones

Publisher: Walker books

ISBN: 9781406326499

Page count: 368

Year of issue: 2015

Digital sources

Nelson's novel is a twin and family relationship story at its heart, but it also intricately explores themes of art, fate, and identity, often with the artwork replacing some of the inner dialogue. I'll Give You the Sun is published in 25 countries, and is optioned by Warner Bros for a film to be written by Natalie Krinsky and produced by Denise Di Novi and Allison Greenspan.

Results

The expected outcomes of the lesson are:

The students will be able to understand through skimming, scanning, reading for the gist and speed reading.
To be able to search information in libraries, to gather information as fast as possible.
To offer observations, make connections, speculate, interpret, and raise questions in response to the excerpts.

Recommendations

Both the teaching method and the text can help in increasing students’ interest in reading. This text promotes a male and a female character with whom boys and girls can identify. The teacher monitors the students so as to make sure they cooperate effectively. The volume of given fragments of books can be adapted to the potential of a group - fragments can be shorter - by cutting less important paragraphs, or be expanded to additional fragments of the same novel.

As it is a competition and usually libraries do not offer more volumes at the same place, we suggest to make it as a competition where the groups will have a different starting time and they will be timed. While the groups are waiting for their turns the teachers can prepare some tips how to search information and the libraries can show their sources and the possibilities how to find the relevant sources.